It’s encouraging to see more women in the industrial
distribution industry as a whole and all the efforts to
encourage an influx of them, but our survey shows
there’s still a very long ways to go. Of our executive-level respondents, just over 5 percent are female. That’s
actually up 2. 6 percentage points from our 2016 survey,
but way down from the 11 percent female total in 2015.

Some other executive demographic respondent stats:

• 31 percent of our executives hail from the Midwest; 24
percent are from the Northeast; 23 percent are from
the South; 18 percent are from the West; and 4 percent
are from outside the U.S.

• The majority — 63 percent — are employed at
companies with less than $25 million in annual sales; 14
percent are at companies with $25-100 million; and 23
percent are at companies with at least $100 million in
sales. As a reference point, our 2016 Big 50 List No. 50
company had $123 million in 2015 sales.

• This year’s group of executives is more highly educated
than the 2016 group. More than 78 percent of 2017
respondents have a college degree — up 11 percentage
points year-over-year. Nearly 26 percent have a
graduate degree.

• Executives have been with their company an average
of 23 years and have held their position for an average
of 14 years — both figures are in line with the previous
few years of our survey

Most of 2016 was rough on the industrial distribution
market, which was battling an industrial recession most
of the year. It forced many distributors to cut costs and
headcount, and our Salary Report indicates it had some
impact on executive pay, but not a major one. Nearly

16 percent of our executive respondents say they have
faced salary or benefit cuts in the past year — up from
13 percent in our 2016 survey and 10 percent in 2015. On
the contrary, more than 56 percent of this year’s group
say they have received some form of raise in the past year
— up 15 points year-over-year. Of those receiving a raise,
the biggest chunk — 33 percent — say they received a
standard performance-based raise. Seventeen percent say
they received a considerable performance-based raise.

Omitting obvious outliers, the adjusted average salary
of this year’s group is $187,000 — down just a hair from
the $189,000 adjusted figure in our 2016 report. With
an executive title often comes significant compensation
perks such as bonuses, 401k contributions, education
reimbursement or other additional cash. Our executive
respondents receive an annual compensation amount
of $100,000 — up $1,000 from our 2016 survey — for a
total 2017 average salary and compensation package
of $287,000.

2017 Salary ReportExecutivesWhat is your current salary,in U.S. dollars per year?

ExecutivesWhat is the average amount of youradditional compensation each year?In the past year, have the demands ofyour job…Stayed the sameDecreased5.3%